Ken Clarkson (Valiant Comics)
| Alignment = | Gender = | Birthplace = Earth | Status = | Occupation = Businessman | Family = | Affiliations = Orb Industries Spider Aliens | Creators = | First = ( ) | Last = }} Ken Clarkson is a devious schemer in the employ of the Spider Aliens, a race of blood-thirsty extraterrestrial arachnoids, who use him to recover the Manowar Class Armor, the most powerful weapon in the universe, from X-O Manowar, a 5th Century Visigoth lost in the modern age. History With Friends Like These… An ambitious user and abuser, Ken Clarkson diligently performed his duties for Orb Industries, a powerful international conglomerate, until he came to suspect that its owners were part of a terrorist front and decided to embezzle the company for his own gain. Ultimately, Ken learned that Lydia, the CEO of Orb Industries, was a ruthless bio-engineered Spider Soldier on a mission to establish bases around the world hidden behind legitimate enterprises with strategically positioned agents within them. Ordered to befriend Aric Dacia to recover the Manowar armor that the aliens required to leave the Earth in exchange for his life, Ken faced an unusual moral quandary and betrayed his alien masters to save Aric’s life. Deceiver At the New York headquarters of Orb Industries in the Chrysler Building, Ken Clarkson sat in the middle of the office of Lydia, the ruthless CEO of Orb Industries, who accused him of embezzling the company. When Lydia warned him that she had no choice but to deal with him harshly, Ken threatened to report to the federal authority that Orb Industries was nothing more than a Communist or terrorists front, but then she mockingly assured him that they were far worse than he could have ever imagined and revealed that she was a Spider Alien. While Ken trembled, Lydia offered to spare his life in exchange for his services and ordered Aristedes, a Spider Alien covert operative, to put Ken on a plane to Peru and have their agents herd Aric Dacia, a 5th Century Visigoth lost in the modern age who stole their most powerful weapon, where he could intercept him. As Aristedes escorted Ken out, Lydia said that Aric had a very valuable ring that belonged to them, and told him that, after he had won his trust, he would bring the ring to her or die. Into The Fire Late one November evening in the capital city of Peru, Ken Clarkson watched as Aric Dacia killed a Spider Soldier and then proceeded to win his trust as ordered. While Aric loomed over his foe, Ken applauded him and sullenly commented that he was there looking for local color but that he surpassed his wildest dreams. Concerned over Aric's wounds, Ken convinced him to follow him to his hotel room and take a bath to clean them. Afterwards, as Ken showed Aric a couch where he could sleep, he joked that the only other bed he had to offer him was his, then, as he went inside his room, he wished him a goodnight. The next morning, Ken was dismayed to notice that Aric was gone, but then he saw him behind a plant and joked that if he wanted a brute to growl at him in the morning he would have bought a St. Bernard. Concerned for his safety, Ken told Aric to shave his beard to get him safely out of the country. During the flight to New York, Ken thought that Aric looked nervous and grabbed his hand to ease him, but then, when he reached for the ring on his finger, Aric pushed him aside. Hours later at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Aric thanked Ken for taking him north, but then Ken told him not to thank him while he was still a fugitive and asked him to wait for him while he made a phone call. After Ken informed Lydia that she brought Aric to New York, he stopped him from leaving and told him that he had found them a place where he would be safe. Unexpectedly, Aric hugged Ken and called him friend in Spanish, which made Ken feel guilty for betraying him. Guilt-ridden, Ken confessed that he worked for the Spider Aliens and tried to warn Aric that they would kill him, but then a group of Spider Soldiers came out of hiding with a Spider Tank and shot his arm off. After Aric shielded Ken, he drew the aliens’ laser fire and they shot off a gasoline tank. While he was pinned under the debris, Aric called out for the armor to come to him, and, shortly, it answered his call and arrived in the form of a metallic sphere that kicked the debris away from him and then wrapped itself around him like a bear skin. While the soldiers fled, Malachai, their commanding officer, fired on Aric, but then the armor carried him toward him and he ripped the tank’s turret off its hinges. Suddenly, Aric found himself floating in mid air unable to move while Malachai told him that, while there was no need for him to die, watching his death would afford him great pleasure. As the tank’s appendage grabbed Aric, he fired on the tank until it toppled on its back. Enraged, Aric broke the glass canopy to grab Malachai and killed him. While tarmac workers discovered the damage from the battle, Aric escaped with Ken unnoticed to the woods. Kingdom Come Late one evening in Lido Beach, Ken Clarkson hid behind a bush where Aric left him when a Spider Soldier in Wolf Class Armor swooped down on them and watched as the police gathered around the house where Aric fought the alien. After Aric returned from killing his arachnid foe, he picked up Ken and they flew to the house of Ken’s friend Bev. After Bev patched Ken’s injury, she asked him what happened and he reiterated that he helped Aric escape from alien invaders who blew his arm off with a laser, but while she believed the part about the laser, she questioned the rest of his story. As he assured Bev that he trusted her and promised that, since they may need more of her help, he would explain everything, Ken told her that they had things to do and asked her to leave them. When Ken signaled him to wrap himself in the Good Skin, Aric figured that, since he was a wizard, he knew that when he wore the armor he understood him a little better and did as he asked. Certain that the armor was probably trying to help Aric understand, Ken told him that it was going to need time to develop a full rapport with him and asked him to try to get the drift of what he told him. As Ken told Aric that the beings that held him prisoner were from another world, he told him that, when he stole the armor, he also destroyed their ship and left them stranded there. While he stood next to a map of the United States on a table, Ken told Aric that the aliens needed his armor to build a new ship, and that long as any of them lived they would go after them, so he had to kill them all and he could help him. While Ken tried to tell Aric that the armor understood maps even if he did not and it would take him to the aliens’ facilities, Aric stared at Bev while she smoked a cigarette. After Aric casually tossed the cigarette away and picked up an antique letter- opener, Ken told Bev that he spent most of his life locked up and did not understand many things. Suddenly, Spider Soldiers broke into the house, and while Aric fought them off one of them absconded with Ken and took him away on a hovercraft. As the sun set in the distance, the hovercraft took Ken to a warehouse in Northampton, and as the soldiers escorted him inside, he warned them that Aric was going to rip them apart. The next morning, Ken awoke in a red room strapped to a web of tendrils that held him upside down from the roof and walls, when then Lydia and Aristedes came inside. While Ken sarcastically told her that Aric was less simple than either of them thought, Lydia noted that luring him into an ambush was risky and asked him for any suggestions on how to catch him out of the armor and unawares, but he just told her to say her prayers. While Aristedes wanted to torture Ken, Lydia did not think he knew anything useful and said she had an idea. That night, as Spider Soldiers released Ken from the tendrils to transfer him to one of Lydia’s hideaways where she could devour him, he lured one of them with the blood from his stump and took his weapon to kill them both. As a firefight with the rest of the guards ensued, Ken held his position in the cell and mused aloud that he would sell his blood pretty dearly and hoped Lydia would get indigestion. Sometime later, the aliens suddenly abandoned the warehouse, and while Ken wondered where they went, Aric patched the armor into the aliens’ communications web and found him. As Ken saw Aric on the screen looking at him, he realized that they had won. The Most Powerful Man In The World Late one night in the Chrysler Building, a physician Ken Clarkson brought from Boston told him he was lucky he lost his arm stumbling against a laser since the cut was clean and nearly cauterized, which kept him from bleeding to death and sped the healing immensely. As the doctor packed his bag, he told Ken that he was not entirely sure who he was, and Ken told him he was the new chief executive officer of Orb Industries. When the doctor noted that, while he had heard about Orb Industries he had never been entirely clear on what it might be, Ken said that his principle preferred it that way, and then, when the doctor asked him who his principal was, he sent him on his way. Moments later, Ken entered the top floor office where Aric Dacia had been reading a children’s book to learn how to speak English at his behest, and told him that, if he had it his way, they would not let any outsiders in the building since people could never know who the principal owner of Orb Industries. Troubled, Ken noted that the Spider Aliens built Orb Industries into a powerful multinational corporation to serve as a front for their operations on Earth, but that it would all come crashing down if the world ever learned that an ancient Visigoth had captured it and become the most powerful man in the world. When Ken asked Aric how his lessons were coming along Aric angrily tossed the book aside and told him he wanted to go home, but Ken told him that he was home for the moment and asked him to believe that he knew what he was doing. . While Aric sat on his throne, Ken told him that, since the aliens had done most of their work behind the scenes and no one outside them knew who ran their corporation, as far as anyone knew they had always been in charge and that he had slowly transferred all their assets into his name. As Ken thanked God he had the common sense to tell Aric to get rid of the aliens’ bodies, he said that, since the cops thought that mystery terrorists ransacked the building and no one knew what really happened except for them and, far as the world was concerned, Orb Industries was back to business as usual. Deviously, Ken told Aric that he was making Orb their business, and, once he was done, they would be sitting pretty and he would be able to go out again. When Ken suggested that they fix the window, Aric refused because the cold made him feel at home. While Ken told Aric that his home had not existed for two thousand years, he noted that one did not have to be a Visigoth to have trouble understanding that and asked him to forget he said anything. As they looked down at the city and Ken told Aric that, soon, they would be able to buy Germany or whatever the area he lived in had become, he said that they were lucky to have each other and that, as long as they were together, they were the most powerful men in the world. The next day, while Ken was in his office, an explosion outside his window made him think that the aliens had staged a counter attack. When Ken looked down at the street and saw Aric fighting an unidentified attacker, he wondered what was happening. When Ken reached the street to help Aric, his assailant, Karl Breznoff, the mercenary called Sniper, opened fire and his bullets ricocheted wildly and hit the innocent bystanders. As Ken made Aric notice that the people around him were dying, Aric pointed at Central Park and challenged Karl to follow him there in a bid to safeguard the people from harm, but Karl shot him off the sky with a barrage of bullets. As Aric hit the pavement, Karl shot him with a bazooka that broke a piece of the Manowar armor’s helmet. When Aric lashed out at Karl in a huff and blocked his barrels with his gauntlets, Karl opened fire and the blast destroyed his implants. While Karl withered in pain, Aric wanted him to stand up and continue their battle, but Ken urged him to take them out of there because people were gawking at them. While Aric and Ken flew away from the scene, Ken told Aric that they had to try to keep his identity a secret and that they would stay out of sight until dark and then sneak back into the building through the broken window. When Aric said that the city afforded him many fights and many bad wizards, Ken assured him that in the 20th Century there were no wizards. King's Crossing On March 1st 1992 in the top floor of the Chrysler Building, Aric Dacia and Ken Clarkson reviewed a file that held all the data Ken could find on Sniper, who he had learned worked for Toyo Harada, the founder of the Harbinger Foundation, a non-profit organization that provided an environment where people with special abilities could achieve their potential. Since he had never heard of Toyo before, Ken researched him and told Aric that he was incredibly wealthy as well as powerful, and involved in a vast pattern of behind-the-scenes manipulations on a global scale that made him a world power unto himself. Moreover, Ken told Aric that the Spider Aliens’ files were full of references to Toyo, whose resistance against them made them fear him. When Aric proclaimed that he did not fear King Toyo or the wizards he sent to kill him, Ken noted that he thought Toyo sent Sniper to kill him because he thought he was one of the aliens and ignored that he had stolen their greatest weapon and booted them out of their headquarters, a notion he hardly believed himself. Just then, Todd Bevins, Toyo’s personal assistant, contacted Ken and Aric through a comm-link terminal hooked into the aliens’ private communications system that the aliens left behind. As Todd assured Ken and Aric that Toyo merely reacted to what his sources believed to be a threat, he said that Toyo had made a commitment to rectify the damage. Using a remote camera at one of their medical facilities, Todd told Ken and Aric that the victims of the battle had received the best care on hand and that they had generously compensated the families of those who died. When Todd said that Toyo would like to meet with them in their offices to discuss his vision of global peace, Ken refused and warned him that the offices were off limits. When Todd suggested that they go to New Orleans where Toyo was and showed them a video of dancing girls at the Mardi Gras festival, Aric eagerly agreed to go, while Ken terminated the transmission and promised to get back to him. While Ken worried that they were not ready to confront Toyo without a plan, Aric was tired of making plans, being locked up in the building, and of what he called Ken’s wizard games, and insisted on facing Toyo his way, with or without him. Since he had invested too much in Aric to let him put his head in the lion’s mouth, Ken halfheartedly agreed to accompany him to New Orleans. Later that day in the airport, Aric mused that he could fly them much faster with the Good Skin, but then he figured it be undignified to lug around a wizard like Ken like a saddlebag and it was important for wizards to seem dignified before an emperor like Toyo. As the plane took off, Aric lamented that Ken did not have time to grow a new arm before they left and thought he would be embarrassed. During the flight, as Ken exclaimed his comfort with their ability to charter their private jet with the wealth they appropriated and asked Aric if the damage that the armor suffered would be permanent. While Aric assured him the armor would re-grow its fallen pieces soon, Ken told him that, if it came to a fight, the armor was all that stood in the way of them meeting his great God Lugh. Valiantly, Aric said that he was not afraid to meet Lugh, and assured Ken that he was a great warrior before the Good Skin, and that if Toyo harmed him he would meet Lugh first. Though he found Aric’s attitude charmingly hostile, Ken noted that it ill-suited their diplomatic mission. Sometime later, while they rode an elevator to Toyo’s penthouse, Ken reminded Aric that he would do the talking when they met Toyo and he would not say anything. When Aric and Ken came into the penthouse, Toyo’s guards reached for the bag that held the Manowar armor to inspect it and Aric thought that they were bandits who wanted to steal it. As Aric punched the guards, Toyo asked him to end the conflict between their two camps and told him that it was his hope they could become staunch allies for the betterment of the planet. While Toyo told Aric that, for many years, he had monitored the alien invaders’ communications, disrupted their flow of supplies, and thwarted their operations at every turn, he explained how, as he became familiar with their technology and recognized his armor to be of extraterrestrial origin, he presumed the worse and apologized for his actions. When Toyo expressed a desire to know what his involvement with the aliens was, Aric insisted to speak with him himself over Ken’s objections. In his own way, Aric told Toyo how, after the aliens took him from his home and made him their prisoner, he waited for years for the time to kill them until, one day when they were not watching, he found the Manowar armor and used it to kill them and take over Orb Industries. Satisfied with Aric’s tale, Toyo told him that the spoils of his victory belonged to him as long as he did not oppose him, but then Aric accused him of attacking him and Ken. While he reiterated that the attack was a mistake, Toyo assured Aric he could rest easy and he had nothing to fear from him as they were there to forge a bond of peace. As they reached a understanding, Toyo invited Aric and Ken to partake of the Mardi Gras festival in a place where the drinks were cool, the jazz was hot, and Aric would have his pick of any woman. While Aric was eager to leave, Ken wished to discuss further business with Toyo, but he declined. As they left and Ken whispered to him that there was more to Toyo that met the eye and said that he did not trust him, Aric told him that he did not trust anyone. That night in the French Quarter, Toyo took Ken and Aric to the La Bas Jazz Club to listen to Jack Boniface, a jazz player, and as they sat down, he offered them a glass of Sazerac, a renowned local drink that inebriated Aric, who excused himself to go to the bathroom. Later that night, as Toyo took Ken and Aric to Bourbon Street, the Harbinger Resistance, a loose organization of Harbinger renegades, attacked, and while Toyo called his guards, Aric attacked John Torkelson, a goliath who sought to get even with those that wronged him, who punched him through a wooden fence. As Aric donned the Good Skin and it cleared his head, dispatched John and Charlene Dupré, fiery Southern Belle, but then Pete Stanchek, a psionic of extraordinary power, deflected his lasers and tossed his in the air against his will where Faith Herbert, a plucky fangirl with the power of flight, tackled him. As John grabbed Aric’s ankles, he tossed him against a shed, but when Charlene climbed down to check up on him, he used a broken water main to douse her flames. In a huff, Charlene evaporated the water around them and created a curtain of steam that hid Aric from her and allowed him to punch her out and defeat John and Pete. Suddenly, Kris Hathaway, Pete's girlfriend, drove up to the club and the renegades escaped in her car. After Toyo reassured Aric that he would find him a strong ally in the future and left them to enjoy the festival, Ken urged him to hide the armor before they attracted more attention and said that he wanted to go back to New York because he had had enough excitement for one day. As he accused Ken of being a boring wizard, Aric walked over to a couple of show girls and said he was there for the women and was not leaving until he had some fun. As Aric told him to go back to the hotel, Ken shook his head and called him a barbarian. Personality Powers and Abilities Equipment Notes Appearances Gallery File:Ken Clarkson XO-Manowar-v1-1 001.jpg Ken Clarkson XO-Manowar-v1-1 002.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-3 001 Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-3 002 Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-3 003 Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-3 004 Aric and Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-5 003 Aric and Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-5 005 Aric and Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-6 008 Aric and Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-6 009 Aric and Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-6 010 Aric and Ken.jpg XO-Manowar-v1-6 011 Aric and Ken.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 7 005 Ken.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 7 006 Aric and Ken.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 7 007 Aric and Ken.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 10 005 XO Ring.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 10 006 XO Ring.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 10 008 Ken XO Ring.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 10 009 Ken XO Ring.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 10 010 Ken XO Ring.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 10 017 Ken XO Ring.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 17 001 Aric and Ken.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 17 002 Aric and Ken.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 17 003 Aric and Ken.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 26 cropped.jpg X-O Manowar Vol 1 46 002 Ken Clarkson.jpg Quotes References External links * Ken Clarkson at Comic Book Database Category:X-O Manowar Category:Homosexual Characters Category:Disabled Characters